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The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that every school aged child has access to a device by the end of this Parliament.

In 2020-21, we provided £25 million to local authorities across Scotland to tackle digital exclusion, resulting in over 72,000 pupils receiving a device to support their learning.

Local authorities have also invested in devices from their own budgets. Information from them indicates that up to 280,000 devices have already been distributed to learners across Scotland (including the 72,000 funded by the Scottish Government).

The Scottish Government has made clear our support for indigenous languages, including Scots.

The Scottish Government provides around £550,000 of funding to Scots organisations who support Scots education. Organisations such as the Scots Language Centre, Dictionaries of the Scots Language, The Association of Scottish Literary Studies, Scots Hoose and Yaldi Books are all supporting Local Authorities through the development of high quality Scots language learning and resources which allow young people access to Scots.

In addition, the Scottish Government works alongside Education Scotland and the SQA who have worked to standardise, promote and make the Scots language more readily available in schools. The Scottish Government’s Scots language policy was officially launched in 2015 and in 2017 Education Scotland published its Scots Language in Curriculum for Excellence report, which outlines good practice for teachers and senior leaders in Primary and Secondary and to Local authority officers with responsibility for literacy and 1+2 implementation.

We are currently considering the responses to the recent consultation on the future of Gaelic and Scots, this will help inform part of the work to develop Scots language policy and future guidance for Local Authorities, as well as the upcoming Scottish Languages Bill.

Statistics on the number of teachers in publicly funded schools in Scotland since 2016 are published in Table 3 of Summary Statistics for Schools in Scotland 2022, available on the Scottish Government website:https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-for-schools-in-scotland-2022/pages/overview/ .

Investment in the Scottish Attainment Challenge is available in a number of publications. In June of last year we published the Attainment Scotland Fund Evaluation: Fifth Interim Report - Year 6, detailing the funding streams and allocations for the first six years of the Attainment Scotland Fund: Attainment Scotland Fund Evaluation: Fifth Interim Report - Year 6 (www.gov.scot) .

Investment in 2021-22 was published in the Education, Children and Young People Committee ‘Scottish Attainment Challenge Report’, having been provided by the Scottish Government, and may be accessed here: Scottish Attainment Challenge Report .

For the 2022/23 financial year, final spend figures are not yet available. However, the Pupil Equity Funding and Strategic Equity Funding allocations to schools and local authorities are all available on gov.scot here: Pupil attainment: closing the gap - Schools - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . 2022-23 allocations for the Care Experienced Children and Young People funding stream are provided below:

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost, due to the significant number of meetings which take place between Energy Saving Trust and the Scottish Government. Energy officials alone meet with EST a number of times a week, both ad hoc and scheduled, to discuss the programme of work they deliver on the government's behalf. A significant number of meetings have also taken place within the specified timeframe between transport and water policy officials and EST.

Ministers meet representatives of civil society organisations from time to time to discuss matters of common interest. Meetings with the Human Rights Consortium Scotland have been held on a number of occasions since May 2021.

Information about ministerial engagements is proactively released and is publicly available on the Scottish Government website .

Civil society organisations contribute in other ways to the development and delivery of public policy in Scotland, for example through participation in working groups and advisory boards.

The Human Rights Consortium Scotland is a member of the Governance and Engagement Board for the Scottish Government’s proposed Human Rights Bill. Details are available on the Scottish Government website .

The 2021 Digital Health and Care strategy aims to make the right information available to all appropriate staff, when and where it is needed. It builds on the existing use of electronic patient record systems used by all Health Boards and GP practices. Our recently publish Data Strategy for Health and Social Care augments this ambition.

Improving the creation and retention of digital records allows for greater sharing of information and reduces the need for multiple paper records to exist across multiple locations. The focus is on allowing medical records to be stored, linked, and shared securely according to the information needed. To achieve this most Health Boards, have a Clinical Portal. This system works across organisational, regional, and national boundaries to provide a timely transfer of information. The key developments to improve the sharing of information within Health Boards is the GPIT Programme, the National Digital Platform, TRAK Care and Clinical Portal.

HEPMA ( Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration ) is a system that can also replace paper prescribing and medication administration systems within hospitals. It has already been successfully implemented in six Health boards across Scotland and all remaining Health Boards all expected to roll it out by the end of 2025.

Student Satisfaction statistics are published on an annual basis. The latest Student Satisfaction statistics published by the SFC show that nine out of 10 (90.2%) full-time students were satisfied with their college experience in 2021-22. This is a positive improvement on the previous year’s statistics and similar to the figures for years preceding the pandemic. These figures will continue to be monitored.

Operational decisions are matters for colleges to determine and they must adapt and respond to the current economic needs flexibly. The future financial position remains exceptionally challenging and consequently, colleges are considering the steps that they must take in order to ensure their financial viability and sustainability. It is for each individual college to determine how best to secure its sustainability while continuing to deliver provision to meet the needs of their regions, communities and students.

We are producing a Student Mental Health Plan, linked to our Suicide Prevention Strategy and the forthcoming Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy to provide a framework for institutional action.

We currently support NUS Think Positive which sign-posts help for students, where institutions can share good practice and where, through Student Mental Health Agreements, students’ associations and institutions collaborate on institutional mental health practices.

Since 2019/20, we have invested over £13.5 million to provide almost 90 additional counsellors and will provide funding for the entirety of AY 2022-23. Any decision with regard to funding beyond the end of the current Academic Year has yet to be taken.

No decision has yet been taken regarding funding for counsellors in colleges and universities beyond the end of the current Academic Year.